12169: Money for Water (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   By IAN JAMES

   PORT-AU-PRINCE, May 26 (AP) -- Water gushes from a row of spigots as
people crowd around, jostling for a chance to fill buckets and bottles.
   Nadine Jean, a 20-year-old student, must lug her bucket up into the
hills to her family's home a mile and a half away.
   "Where I live, there's no water at all," she says.
   Few people have access to clean water in Haiti, and most must pay for
it. The Inter-American Development Bank could help, but a $54 million loan
to improve access to potable water is on hold because of Haiti's political
crisis, hampering even modest progress in the Western Hemisphere's poorest
country.
   Other Development Bank loans also are held up. The United States, a
major donor to the Washington-based bank, has blocked release of nearly
$150 million in low-interest loans until Haiti's government and opposition
settle a long-running election dispute. Also frozen are loans of $19
million for education reform, $50 million for improved roads and $23
million for medical supplies and clinics.
   Haiti's government says the water loan is particularly important because
infections and diseases spread through contaminated water are a leading
cause of death.
   In Washington, the Congressional Black Caucus has submitted a resolution
that urges President Bush to release the loans.
   "In every sense, the disbursement of these loans can mean the difference
between life and death," says Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif.
   The World Health Organization estimates only 46 percent of Haiti's 8
million people have safe drinking water. Networks of water pipes haven't
kept up with heavy migration from rural areas to cities, and many water
sources are contaminated.
   Crowds are common at public fountains that sell filtered water in the
capital, Port-au-Prince, a city of 2.5 million people where even well water
must be purified.
   At the hillside neighborhood of Tete de l'Eau, which means fountainhead,
women, children and teen-agers crowd at the taps, passing coins through a
metal grate to an attendant. It costs 10 Haitian cents (2 U.S. cents) for a
gallon or 40 cents (8 cents) for five gallons. Demand is heavy.
   "Hey, get out of the way!" one girl shouts.
   "Why are you pushing me?" another demands of a boy filling a bottle
ahead of her.
   Elsewhere, people buy water from private vendors, often paying more. So
even water eats away at precious income in Haiti, where the vast majority
live on less than $1 a day.
   U.S. officials defend the freezing of loans and channeling of nearly $55
million in aid this year to non-governmental agencies as a way to support
democracy in Haiti.
   "We do not believe enough has been done yet to move the political
process forward to assure ourselves that additional aid will be used in the
most effective way at this time," Secretary of State Colin Powell said
earlier this year.
   The European Union similarly has frozen $45 million in grants.
   That only "makes the political situation worse," says Mario Dupuy,
Haiti's secretary of state for communication.
   The opposition accuses the government of using the withholding of aid as
an alibi for its own chronic mismanagement following the 2000 elections.
   Even if the loans are approved, their disbursement is expected to be
delayed by required reforms. And many Haitians agree the Inter-American
Development Bank's water loan of $54 million would be a drop in the bucket.
   Haiti's deforested hills are turning into a desert. At current erosion
rates, all of Haiti's arable land will be lost by 2040, ecologists say.
   Meanwhile, finding water for washing, cooking and drinking is a daily
struggle.
   "The biggest problem is that sometimes I come here and there are so many
people I can't get any water," says vegetable vendor Lucienne Mira, 21,
overwhelmed by the line at a public fountain.